


Imaginary

by IaMcHrIsSi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, a creative take on it, it doesn't go against canon, it's just, it's not even really an AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-07 00:32:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4242702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke and Leia both had an imaginary friend (no, sibling) growing up. Little did they know they didn't imagine it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imaginary

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a tumblr post wondering whether their force bond caused Luke and Leia to have each other as an imaginary friend growing up. I liked the idea and just ran with it.

Luke is an unnervingly quiet child. Beru noticed it from the beginning, even though neither Owen nor Master Kenobi (Old Ben, she should call him Old Ben now) have realized that it is something unusual. But Beru has. 

Luke looks around the room, like he does so often. He resembles his father very much, but in this moment the look on his face is pure Shmi's. Shmi always looked like that when she was trying to feel something. She had been able to do that, just feel things. Whether it was knowing that Anakin was alive or telling Beru that Beru's mother was coming an hour before she showed up unannounced. Owen had always considered it luck, or religious delusions, but Beru knows, has always known, better.

Luke makes a grabby motion with his hands, as if to catch something lying next to him, on his left, but there is nothing. Still, he seems satisfied. Beru watches him for a few more moments, before going to cook dinner.

….

Leia is screaming. Bail isn't sure what's wrong, but she is screaming. His daughter is not a quiet child, he reflects ruefully, as he tries to concentrate on the speech he has to write while carrying the little girl.

He isn't quite sure what Leia wants. She has been fed, she has been changed. She doesn't seem particularly tired, and she isn't sick. Walking her around or singing to her do not do the trick, either.

Finally he lays her down in her crib again, deciding to maybe call the doctor again. Bail is just fetching the com when Leia suddenly stops crying. Her eyes look to her right in wonder and she reaches out with a hand as if to touch something. There is nothing, just air, but Leia seems satisfied.

Bail stares at his baby girl for a moment, before going back to his speech. Might as well get it done now that Leia isn't screaming anymore.

xxx

Luke is playing with some mechanics. Beru keeps an eye on him, mostly because some of those parts can be sharp. Nothing dangerous, but enough for her to worry a bit. She doesn't take the parts away, though, because Luke loves playing around with them, and it's cheaper than buying toys.

The little boy is babbling excitedly. Every now and then he stops as if to listen to someone. He's always done this, since he's started talking. Beru can't understand him when he talks like this, he says things so quickly, it's almost as if it's another language.

Suddenly her boy looks up at her. He smiles. “Sarel says you look pretty today.” He states, then goes back to his playing.

Beru takes a moment to remember how to breath. Sarel. It means sister in her peoples language, the language she made sure Luke speaks, because it was Shmi's language, too. It makes sense, in a way, Beru supposes. She's always known Luke has a twin sister, Old Ben had told her, and she's also always known that Luke is like Shmi, that sometimes he just knows things. Shmi had known that Anakin was alive years after last seeing him and with a galaxy between them. Her people have stories about those like Shmi and Luke, and Beru has listened to them all. It makes sense for Luke to know of his sister. And it makes sense for him to talk to her.

Still, Beru is afraid. There are people who want to hurt Luke and his sister. There is a reason the twins have been separated. But this is Tatooine. Nobody would come here to look, would they? She looks at her boy with unease as he continues to play and chatter without any worry.

xxx

Bail can't find Leia. Again. It's really kind of ridiculous how often his adventurous daughter manages to disappear. He had just left her in her room for a few minutes. She had seemed happy playing with her doll.

Bail walks through the palace, asking whether people have seen the little princess. Lani, the maid, denies having seen her, as does Mik from security. Sabe is braiding Winter's hair and doesn't know either, but Winter suggests the library. That seems to be as good as any possibility, so Bail kisses Winters forehead and goes to check.

Indeed, Leia is walking through the shelves, looking for something. Bail smiles with relief. He probably shouldn't panic like this every time he can't find her immediately, but she is Leia, she is his daughter, and he know (knows) what could happen to her, in how much danger she is by merely being who she is.

“What are you looking for?” He asks from behind Leia, startling the little girl. She turns around and looks up to him with big dark brown eyes. 

“I can't find Nami. Where is Nami?” She seems close to tears, and Bail pales. Nami. Old Alderaanian for brother. Leia has talked about Nami since the start, insisted that her brother was there. It honestly scared the crap out of both Bail and Breha. They had told her, time and time again, that she didn't have a brother, out of fear (What if the Emperor hears? What if Vader hears?), but Leia insists. 

Bail takes her into his arms, in part to hide his sudden fear, and holds her close. “He is in your mind, sweetie, where else?”

xxx

Beru runs outside the moment she hears the scream. Luke is lying on the ground, next to the ladder. She has told him a thousand times not to climb it, that it's too dangerous, too high.

She kneels down next to her boy and looks him over. Luke clutches his leg, but otherwise he doesn't seem to be hurt. Beru takes the sobbing boy into her arms and breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

The leg isn't broken, the doctor tells them later. It's just sprained. It's no two days before Luke is running around again, though this time with a healthy respect for the ladder.

….......

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Leia screams. Bail, who'd been checking up on her, immediately rushes into her room and takes her into his arms.

“Shh” He says. “It was just a nightmare. It's okay. It's not real, sweetheart, and I am here.” She is shaking in his arms.

“My leg hurts.” She sobs. For a moment, Bail just looks. Her leg hurts? Probably some left-over from the dream, he decides. 

“It's okay. It's all going to be okay.” He repeats it like a mantra, and it does seem to calm his daughter down a bit. But she still won't stop crying, so he takes her to sleep in his and Breha's bed for the night.

When she still mentions pain in her leg the next morning, they go to the doctor, who tells them nothing is amiss. Leia seems to forget the dream over the day, but Bail notices that she stays clear of heights for a couple weeks after the incident.

xxx

“My sister is annoying. She is in the 'fresher for ages. I don't even know what she's doing in there.” Biggs says. Beru rather likes the Darklighter boy. He is polite and he looks out for Luke, who, at seven, is a small and skinny little boy. She is glad they are friends.

“My Sarel isn't. I think. She's not really real. But I think she doesn't use the 'fresher for so long.” Luke says distractedly. He is trying (and succeeding, as far as Beru can tell) to fix the lock on his door.

Beru keeps a close ear on the conversation. Biggs knows about Luke's imaginary sister (only she isn't imaginary, but Luke can't ever know that). He doesn't mock Luke for it, which Beru is very thankful for. But Beru is never quite sure what Biggs does think about it.

“Well, that's the good thing about having an imaginary sister. She's not using your 'fresher.” The boy says. Beru breathes a sigh of relief. No need to intervene.

 

“You're 9, Leia! You can't just decide to take a speeder for a tour!” Bail admonishes. He is angry, and tries very hard not to shout. This could have gone very wrong. The moment he had realized that the figure on the speeder was Leia... his brain gives him all sorts of unnecessary, decidedly not helpful scenarios in which the speeder crashes, Leia is flung through the air or into a tree. He can see her lying on the ground, bleeding, right there in front of his inner eye. 

He takes a deep breath. Tries to calm himself down. “You're too young, Leia. This could have ended much worse. You could have gotten hurt.” He is rather proud of himself for keeping his voice steady.

But Leia is feeling rebellious today. “Nobody ever tells Nami that he's too young! He's allowed to drive a speeder! Why am I not?” She yells at him.

Bail feels a second shock go through him. “Nami isn't real. He doesn't exist.” He shouts back. Leia runs into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Bail slides down to the floor and puts his head in his hands. He shouldn't have shouted. He makes a point not to raise his voice against his girls, and he really shouldn't have shouted just now. But it was just... he still sees the smoke coming from the speeder, the realization that there was Leia on a malfunctioning speeder, that she could die. And then she goes and brings up her brother, whom Bail and Breha have been telling her is imaginary. They have made sure to tell her kindly, but firmly. It is not good for anyone if the Empire knows about Leia's fantasy. (It's not a fantasy, and both Bail and Breha know it. Still.) He's scared. But that doesn't help now.

Bail sighs and gets up. He should find his daughter. 

xxx

Luke isn't sure where he is. He is in a big room. There is expensive furniture everywhere and the big windows show a huge city on the outside. He's definitively been here before, but he feels as though that was a long time ago, in a dream or maybe another life.

“Morning, Nami.” A voice comes from behind, and Luke starts to grin. Now he remembers. It's been way to long since he last dreamed of her.

“Morning, Sarel.” He says, turning around. There she stands, brown hair in braids, taller than the last time and a big smile on her face. He hugs her. She isn't real, he knows that. She doesn't really exist. But that doesn't make her any less his sister. His thoughts must show on his face, though. Or she senses them. She can do that.

“You think too much.” She complains, eyes sparkling. “I haven't seen you in such a long time.” She looks worried. Just a bit, but he can read her better than he can read anybody else.

“Are you okay?” He asks. She starts to say something, probably that yes, of course she's okay, but he shoots her a mild glare and she sighs.

“We're twelve tomorrow.” She murmurs. Luke waits. There's something that's bothering Sarel, and it's not their birthday. “There is going to be a big party, you know.”

“And you're nervous.” Luke guesses. It's not like her to be nervous. She has always been the fearless one.

“A bit. It's stupid.” She says. Luke smiles at her. He takes her hand and starts to say something, but suddenly …

“Morning, Luke. You wanted to help your aunt with breakfast, remember?” Uncle Owen stands in his room. For a moment Luke is completely confused. Than his brain kicks in and he looks at the window. The sun is high up in the sky. Luke mutters a curse in Huttese his uncle pretends not to hear and gets up. What did he dream about? Sarel was there, he knows. His imaginary sister Biggs still teases him about on occasion. He's too old for an imaginary friend (or sister). 

Luke shruggs. It's not really important, and he did promise Aunt Beru to help her.

xxx

The boy tries to flirt. He is incredibly arrogant, and his pick up lines are horrible. Leia fights the urge to throw her drink (water, only water, she is 14 after all) in his face, just to see how he'd react. Not good, probably.

They are on the yearly summer celebration, a ball where all the Alderaani aristocrats are invited to spend the night dancing, wearing pretty colors and making meaningless small talk. Leia has always considered it very boring, but this year the number of boys her age or slightly older that try to talk to her is just overwhelming. They don't really want her, she knows, they want to flirt with the Princess of Alderaan. They annoy her. Especially when they are airheads like this one. She tries to listen to what he says. It would do nobody any good if she offends him.

“And that dress brings out your curves so well.” For a moment she thinks she's misheard. Did he just really...? Leia is krething 14! And his princess! She throws her water into his face. His eyes are swimming, and he is quite red. Probably more drunk than she had realized. But in that moment she doesn't care.

She stalks away before the boy really understands what just happened. Are there no men that are not pigs? Well, she thinks, her father isn't a pig, and Mik from security isn't, nor are the other servants. Most adult lords aren't either, although there are a few who make her uneasy. But boys her age? She can't think of any. Well, any real ones. Nami is a true gentleman, she thinks with a smile, even if way too naive sometimes, but then again, Nami isn't real and has never been. Just her imagination giving her the brother she always wished for.

Leia takes a deep breath, puts on her most polite smile and reenters the room. She has to represent her family, after all.

(And if she spends the whole evening imagining Nami, still twelve like the last time she'd seen him (she hadn't remembered immediately, back then, but a couple days later it had come back to her) making scathing comments about all the different boys that approach her, nobody has to know. Nami had been naive, she remembers, but surprisingly sarcastic.)

xxx

“And such, the goddess gifted her children the knowledge about fire.” Amee's voice is deep and reverent, like always when she tells the tales of their people. Luke sits on the ground with a couple of the other boys. Well, they are teens, all between 16 and 18. They don't want to think of themselves as boys anymore, but when Amee calls them that, they don't object. Nobody would speak against Amee.

He's always liked stories. Beru has told him all the stories she knows, but Amee knows more stories. And she always tells them in the language of their people, too. Uncle Owen wouldn't understand a word she says, but Luke does.

The story she just told, about two siblings who had set out to find a cure for their sick mother has always been one of Luke's favorites. He's not sure why, but he suspects it's because the story reminds him of Sarel.

Luke smiles. Sarel. The fantasy of a lonely boy. It had been a lovely fantasy, though, to have a sister, a fearless and clever companion who knew him and he her. He hasn't dreamed of her for a long time. He remembers, that, when he was still very young, he used to think she was real. Apparently he had whole conversations with her while still awake. That's what Aunt Beru says, anyway. But Luke only remembers dreaming of her.

He's too old for this, Uncle Owen would say. And probably Uncle Owen would be right. Still, Luke misses dreaming Sarel. He always will, he thinks.

xxx

They throw her into her cell. Leia stays on the floor for a few moments. Everything hurts. Literally everything. She tries to get up, but finds her legs won't carry her.

After a while she crawls to the bed. It's not really a bed, just hard plastic, but it's better than lying on the floor. She tries not to think. When she starts thinking, she will have to think about what just happened, about Alderaan.... no. She doesn't want to sleep, either, but against her will, her eyes fall shut and she drifts off.

Leia's dream is … strange. And familiar. She stands in a desert. There are two suns in the sky. She remembers, and relaxes. It is a good dream. Nobody can hurt her here. Nobody. Not even Vader.

A boy comes to her. It's Nami, she realizes. He smiles, as if to assure her that she will be okay. Leia feels his hand on hers, comfort and warmth and security.

A noise on the door rudely wakes her up. She starts sitting up, new confidence surging through her. She can do this.

“I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you!”

xxx

Something about Leia draws Luke in. He doesn't understand it, at least at first. She is a beautiful woman, and a princess, too, and she is nice and strong and actually has, unlike him, an idea what she's doing, but that doesn't explain it, not really.

It doesn't explain why Luke feels safe in her presence, why he feels as though he's known her forever, as though they've been friends forever. He's not sure whether she feels it too, but it puzzles him quite a bit.

A few weeks after they first met Luke finds himself sitting outside the base with Leia, talking about their homes. He's not sure what brought the topic up, but now that they started neither of them seems to be able to stop. He watches her as she tells him about her father, and suddenly she smiles in a certain way, and Luke finds it difficult to breath. She looks exactly like Sarel, like he always thought Sarel would look like grown up, at least.

He closes his eyes for a moment, calms himself down. He's projecting his own memories on her, surely. They might look alike, but that is only his subconsciousness trying to find familiar things in a new place. That must be it. There's no way it could be different, is there?

xxx

For the first three years, Leia consciously does not examine her relationship with either Han or Luke. They are her friends, whom she feels deeply for, and that is enough. Her mother taught her to always get a clear picture of her own emotions, but mama is dead, and Leia cannot... she just can't do it, can't sit down, following mama's instructions as to how to understand her own feelings. She doesn't want to. As long as she doesn't think about it too hard, she doesn't have to confront it. Doesn't have to admit to herself that she loves them, both, in different ways. (She can't love anyone. Has she forgotten what happened the last time she loved? Has she forgotten mama and papa and Sabe and how they were just... gone?)

And then Ord Martell happens, and Hoth, and Bespin. Suddenly she has to deal with her feelings for Han, has to accept that she loves him (he loves her, too) (but then he's gone, like mama and papa and Sabe and everyone). And Leia is just so krething tired. Tired of this war, tired of fighting, tired of pretending.

She drops the pretense of not loving Luke. She doesn't love him like she loves Han (who's not dead, just gone, can (maybe, with luck, hopefully) come back). She loves Luke like... it's difficult to describe, and so she finds herself doing something she hasn't done in over three years: Sitting down in her quiet room, closing her eyes and searching her emotions like her mother told her. It doesn't hurt as much as she feared (tears prick on her eyelids, but she doesn't start crying, so that's a win).

And after a bit deliberating, she realizes that she loves Luke like she loved Nami. Absolutely, purely, innocently, in a way. Her love for Luke is nothing like her love for Han. With Han, it's up and down, it's … like fire. Hot and heavy and angry sometimes, but warming and peaceful and comforting at others. What she feels for Luke is more like a steady river. It's not as obvious, but more... stable maybe. It's like a force of nature, a constant of the universe. Quiet, but incredibly powerful. Leia is not one for poetics, but right now? She's tired, and she doesn't care. All she cares about is that Han is gone but Luke isn't, Luke who was hurt in Bespin just as much as she was, but still tries to be her rock, like she tries to be his.

(One evening, after a little party with the Rogues (they are concerned, Leia knows, about both her and Luke) they sit together at the beach. The party has died down and both of them are more than a little drunk. Leia has her head on Luke's shoulder, and he has his arms around hers. She feels safer than she has in days. 

Half asleep, Luke murmurs: “'Night, Sarel.” Leia freezes. Did he just...? Did Luke just call her Sarel? The only person who ever used that word was Nami, but Nami doesn't exist, was a figment of her imagination, is not real.

Luke snores a bit, and Leia decides that she misheard. It's the alcohol, definitively. And the lack of sleep. There is no way Luke just said what she thinks he said.)

xxx

Ben says “Your sister” and Luke knows. It's not a surprise. He actually should have figured it out months, no years ago. He cannot believe he was so stupid.

Ben commends his intuition, but Luke barely listens. He remembers dark hair and a mischievous smile, half forgotten dreams and a huge palace. He remembers Sarel, his sister. He remembers how nervous Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru became when he talked about her. He remembers thinking, years ago, that Leia looked like Sarel.

He wants to hit something. And hug Leia. And cry, possibly. Leia is Sarel. She has always been Sarel. Sarel is real, not imagined, but his real, breathing sister. She's real.

xxx

There is still music in the air, faintly, when Leia wakes up. For a moment she doesn't know where she is. It's a sensation she's gotten used to over the last four years, but it still unsettles her. Then she remembers.

She looks around. Han lies next to her, snoring softly. Leia smiles. He is there. He is alive, he is healthy, he is happy, he loves her and she loves him and he is there.

Than she realizes that Luke isn't. She knows he came with them yesterday (she wasn't going to let him go, let her brother out of her eyes again, absolutely not). She panics, almost, for a moment. He can't be gone, Luke can't... she feels something in the back of her mind. A comforting something, a safe something. It's bright like a star, and Leia knows what or rather who it is.

Luke sends her his apologies for frightening her, and assures Leia he is alright. It's amazing, how she can understand this feeling he sends her, without any word or picture. Like Nami, she thinks, and almost starts to laugh.

Quietly she gets up, careful not to wake Han. She finds her brother (her brother) outside, sitting next to hut. He looks up at her and smiles. Leia wonders how she never recognized this smile. It's pure Nami.

“Sarel is old Tatooinian. It means sister.” Luke tells her, and she sits down next to him. 

“Nami is old Alderaanian. It means brother.” She says, and smiles at him.


End file.
